Q. How worried are you about the next generation of marine surveyors, and where will they come from?
A. Two of my children were in the army and so I know that the armed services produce seriously tough people. Ours is a profession which can be entered at any age so army, navy and air force people are potential surveyors, especially if they have pensions to tide them over until they get well established.
It’s
disconcerting how bad much of the education system is in Britain. So I fear many youngsters lack the necessary basic skills, such as report writing, mast climbing, patience, stamina and experience mending boats. Since I started work in the Second World War I have always owned a boat - often an old one - so I have had a non-stop stream of information coming from these craft. I am sure that surveyors should spend plenty of time afloat, as that is where accidents occur and boat defects come to light.
Q. As one of the oldest, most experienced and respected members of the IIMS, you are well placed to offer advice to others. What advice would you give to an aspiring young surveyor who is making his/her way in the surveying world of 2017?
A. I see reports by other surveyors and am often dismayed by the way they spent so much time describing the boat being inspected. They sometimes include the colour of the carpets but they list SO FEW DEFECTS. Many modern boats are badly built and have cracks, corrosion and loose furniture by the end of the first season. Our job is not to tell a boat buyer what he/she has already seen and is satisfactory. A surveyor has to: “Protect life, limb and property”. To do that we must mention current defects, past ones which have been repaired, including the
quality of the repair and also potential future ones, sometimes using information gathered from previous surveys on comparable craft. I have surveyed new boats and found 6 pages of problems - such as engines located where no-one can refill the sump oil without a very special filler, which is not on board. Buyers want to know what has broken, what will break and how good repairs are. They do not need to be told that the cushions are in good order.
Items not mentioned in a
survey report are assumed to be satisfactory, or cannot be seen. Also surveyors must go to sea at least 20 weekends every year - and ideally 50 weekends - to get ‘hands-on’ experience.
Q. If you had your life again, would you have done anything differently?
A. I went to night school and studied wood-work, metal-work and such like. However my apprenticeship and mending my various boats taught me a lot about these subjects. I wish instead that I had studied accountancy, law, and electronics on a part-time basis. These days our profession suffers from blizzards of new laws and changes in the tax regime which need to be known about and understood.
Q. How do you choose to spend your leisure time?
A. I sail in summer. The aim is to race Tuesday and Wednesday evenings then go off on Friday evening and get back Sunday night, or at dawn on Monday. Sometimes this regime gets interrupted for instance when surveying abroad.
I’ve
What a marine surveyor needs to know about surveying wood craft
ISBN: ISBN 978-1-911058-04-5 Size: 60 pages
Ian has authored three IIMS handy guides, two of which are published with the third on the way. His writing skills are exemplary and the guides are delightfully depicted with his very own hand drawn sketches that mark them out as something special.
Currently available:
In the winter I
spend all of Saturday working on the current boat and after church on Sunday it’s the same.
written twenty seven books and the IIMS is to publish the twenty eighth about “Surveying Sails”. The twenty ninth is well on its way too, so I do not actually have much leisure time.
82 | The Report • September 2017 • Issue 81
What a marine surveyor needs to know about surveying metal craft
ISBN 978-1-911058-12-0 Size: 68 pages
Both handy guides are available from the IIMS web site, or direct from the Institute by telephone order at a cost of £25 each plus post and packaging. See:
http://bit.ly/2uxuY7k for details.
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